Wednesday, September 26, 2007

It's really nice to finally be settling back in at home after a crazy couple of weeks of travel. Right before we left for Wales, I had a bright idea to change ALL of the bulbs in our home to compact fluorescent energy saving light bulbs. I know in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't save THAT much energy, but that's the thing about small changes... if everyone did this it would make a huge difference. If you're still not convinced... you WILL save $$ MONEY $$!!! A 13 watt CFL bulb is the equivalent brightness to a 60 watt tungsten bulb. So by changing all of the bulbs in our house we will cut the energy (used by light bulbs) by over 2/3!! Amazing!

If you want to figure out how much you'll be saving in both energy and money, check out this awesome site: One Billion BulbsWhen you login, you can record your purchases of CFL bulbs and estimate how much you'll be saving every year! Check out our savings: 16 bulbs replaced (a $25.00 investment) will save us $186.54 this year.

"Imagine the possibilities. Imagine if people all over the world mobilized to replace one billion standard incandescent light bulbs with energy-efficient compact fluorescent (CFL) light bulbs. What would that mean? It would mean that those people would save money each month on their electricity bill. It would mean they would save enough energy to light tens of millions of homes for a year. It would mean the prevention of greenhouse gases equivalent to the annual emissions of millions of cars."

So if you look to the right, on the sidebar we've started a team to replace bulbs and save energy. It's easy to join and we can track how much we've saved together!! Go here to join: http://www.onebillionbulbs.com/Group/TeamPhotoNext time you're at Home Depot, Target, Walmart, etc. pick up 1 bulb and replace it in the one light that you use the most.

Now what should I do with all of those incandescent bulbs? Any bright ideas?

7 comments:

I changed all my bulbs out last year. I still can't believe people haven't done this already! The price on those bulbs has really gone down, too. I paid as much as $6 for one last year. IKEA has them for super dirt cheap, like the price of regular old bulbs. I still drive a gas guzzler but hope to get a nice used little car soon. I live in the moutains, 4x4 is necessary!

Just make sure when they do burn out, you dispose of them properly! Read the fine print on the box - those suckers are more dangerous to the environment when thrown in the garbage than if you use regular old light bulbs!!

Finally glad you took my advice. I should have nagged at you more, oh wait....that's Mary's job! hahaha J/K Just keep in mind when they burn out (which won't be for a while) you can recycle them. I think IKEA may take them actually (they contain mercury....nasty stuff - it only damages your central nervous system :) no problem). You can recycle your old incandescent bulbs too. I was starting to get a little worried. You guys haven't blogged for like 3 days. That has to be a record!

They actually don't have a "dangerous" level of mercury in them - that's a highly overblown claim occasionally made by some sensationalist reporters.

They contain a few milligrams of mercury - a tiny fraction of the amount found in a mercury thermometer or an old thermostat. And they actually prevent the release of more mercury than that into the environment, as some mercury is released into the atmosphere when coal is burned to create power - by the end of their lifespan, because of their power savings, they prevent the release of approximately 10 milligrams of mercury into the atmosphere per bulb.

If you do break one, the cleanup instructions are available - you can find them here.